The secrets to wedding planning success

This weekend, my fiancé and I started—and finished—wedding band shopping. As all other wedding planning has been so far, the hunt for bands was fun and ridiculously easy. And it occurred to me why everything has been so simple. Beside the fact that I’m a classic Type A who loves to plan and organize (I got seriously excited about organizing our storage closet last week – total party time), the type of relationship my fiancé and I have makes it all the more easier.

We started at the same jewelry store where he bought my engagement ring. My ring is tricky – it has a thick band and diamonds perpendicular to the main stone, which meant the band had to be thick and not too high so that it wouldn’t rub against the side stones and loosen them. But lo and behold, we found the perfect band at the store. And my fiancé found a “manly” ring, as he put it, that he was happy with.

Here’s why it went so smoothly:

We talked about the budget ahead of time. I’m by no means a relationship expert, but I can tell you that communication is so key. In fact, I truly think it’s the secret to relationship success.

Rather than insist he get a band that complemented mine, I respected the fact that he’ll have to wear this ring every day and preferred that he find one he loved. Ditto on respect.

We asked each other’s opinions on the bands we chose and took that input into consideration when making the final choice. Listening is important.

We were considerate. I suggested we look at options for him first, because I knew he was a little anxious about finding something he’d like. In turn, he made sure I found something I liked before saying yes to his, so that we could get our bands at the same place and have more bargaining power.

I realized we’ve basically followed this same formula in making every big wedding decision. As a result, there have been no major arguments or frustrations with one another.

To quote one of my favorite wedding movies, “Bride Wars” (yup, I’m doing it), you can tell a lot about a couple’s future by how they handle wedding planning. And I’m feeling pretty good about forever.